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Categories: Biology: Developmental, Paleontology: General
Published Asexual propagation of crop plants gets closer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When the female gametes in plants become fertilized, a signal from the sperm activates cell division, leading to the formation of new plant seeds. This activation can also be deliberately triggered without fertilization, as researchers have shown. Their findings open up new avenues for the asexual propagation of crop plants.
Published Ancient retroviruses played a key role in the evolution of vertebrate brains
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers report that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin -- and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element or 'retrotransposon' is essential for myelin production in mammals, amphibians, and fish. The gene sequence, which they dubbed 'RetroMyelin,' is likely a result of ancient viral infection, and comparisons of RetroMyelin in mammals, amphibians, and fish suggest that retroviral infection and genome-invasion events occurred separately in each of these groups.
Published A lighthouse in the Gobi desert
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study explores the weight great fossil sites have on our understanding of evolutionary relationships between fossil groups and quantified the power these sites have on our understanding of evolutionary history. Surprisingly, the authors discovered that the wind-swept sand deposits of the Late Cretaceous Gobi Desert's extraordinarily diverse and well-preserved fossil lizard record shapes our understanding of their evolutionary history more than any other site on the planet.
Published Team creates novel rabies viral vectors for neural circuit mapping
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A research team has created 20 new recombinant rabies viral vectors for neural circuit mapping that offer a range of significant advantages over existing tools, including the ability to detect microstructural changes in models of aging and Alzheimer's disease brain neurons.
Published Key genes linked to DNA damage and human disease uncovered
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists unveil 145 genes vital for genome health, and possible strategies to curb progression of human genomic disorders.
Published Pesticides to help protect seeds can adversely affect earthworms' health
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source While pesticides protect crops from hungry animals, pesky insects, or even microbial infections, they also impact other vital organisms, including bees and earthworms. And today, research reveals that worms are affected by the relatively small amounts of chemicals that can leach out of pesticide-treated seeds. Exposure to nonlethal amounts of these insecticides and fungicides resulted in poor weight gain and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage in the worms.
Published Why do flies fall in love? Researchers tease out the signals behind fruit fly courtship songs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have pinpointed the group of neurons in the nerve cord -- a structure analogous to our spinal cord -- that produce and pattern the fly's two major courtship songs. They've also measured neuronal activity in these cells while flies were singing to understand how these neurons control each type of song.
Published Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The bead found at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming's Converse County is about 12,940 years old and made of bone from a hare.
Published Nutrients direct intestinal stem cell function and affect aging
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The capacity of intestinal stem cells to maintain cellular balance in the gut decreases upon aging. Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of action between the nutrient adaptation of intestinal stem cells and aging. The finding may make a difference when seeking ways to maintain the functional capacity of the aging gut.
Published Researchers studying ocean transform faults, describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source This study reports widespread mineral carbonation of mantle rocks in an oceanic transform fueled by magmatic degassing of CO2. The findings describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle in transform faults that represent one of the three principal plate boundaries on Earth. The confluence of tectonically exhumed mantle rocks and CO2-rich alkaline basalt formed through limited extents of melting characteristic of the St. Paul's transform faults may be a pervasive feature at oceanic transform faults in general. Because transform faults have not been accounted for in previous estimates of global geological CO2 fluxes, the mass transfer of magmatic CO2 to the altered oceanic mantle and seawater may be larger than previously thought.
Published The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Published Surprisingly vibrant color of 12-million-year-old snail shells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on the other hand, are usually pale and inconspicuous because the pigments are very sensitive and have already decomposed. Residues of ancient color patterns are therefore very rare. This makes a new discovery all the more astonishing: researchers found pigments in twelve-million-year-old fossilized snail shells.
Published New fossil site of worldwide importance uncovered in southern France
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nearly 400 exceptionally well-preserved fossils dating back 470 million years have been discovered in the south of France by two amateur paleontologists. The discovery provides unprecedented information on the polar ecosystems of the Ordovician period.
Published Ancient pollen trapped in Greenland ice uncovers changes in Canadian forests over 800 years
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Greenland ice sheet lies thousands of miles from North America yet holds clues to the distant continent's environmental history. Nearly two miles thick in places, the ice sheet grows as snow drifts from the sky and builds up over time. But snow isn't the only thing carried in by air currents that swirl around the atmosphere, with microscopic pollen grains and pieces of ash mixing with snowfall and preserving records of the past in the ice. A new study examined these pollen grains and identified how eastern Canada's forests grew, retreated, and changed through time.
Published What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? Scientists now have an answer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Inspired during field work in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, geoscientists have proposed that all-time low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions triggered a 57-million-year-long global 'Sturtian' ice age.
Published New research uncovers biological drivers of heart disease risk
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Over the past 15 years, researchers have identified hundreds of regions in the human genome associated with heart attack risk. However, researchers lack efficient ways to explore how these genetic variants are molecularly connected to cardiovascular disease, limiting efforts to develop therapeutics. To streamline analysis of hundreds of genetic variants associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), a team of researchers combined multiple sequencing and experimental techniques to map the relationship between known CAD variants and the biological pathways they impact.
Published Dinosaurs' success helped by specialized stance and gait, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Dinosaurs' range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable, researchers have found.
Published Researchers discover key to molecular mystery of how plants respond to changing conditions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of researchers recently published a pioneering study that answers a central question in biology: how do organisms rally a wide range of cellular processes when they encounter a change -- either internally or in the external environment -- to thrive in good times or survive the bad times? The research, focused on plants, identifies the interactions between four compounds: pectin, receptor proteins FERONIA and LLG1 and the signal RALF peptide.
Published Ancient Australian air-breathing fish from 380 million years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The rivers of Australia, which once flowed across its now dry interior, used to host a range of bizarre animals -- including a sleek predatory lobe-finned fish with large fangs and bony scales. The newly described fossil fish discovered in remote fossil fields west of Alice Springs has been named Harajicadectes zhumini by palaeontologists.
Published Scientists develop new biocontainment method for industrial organisms
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a new biocontainment method for limiting the escape of genetically engineered organisms used in industrial processes.